U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., noted last week that Japan “has become a destination country, a haven, for international child abduction.” This has prompted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to urge Japan to join the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
This issue was in the news a lot in late 2009 after Christopher Savoie, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in Japan for kidnapping his children. Savoie and his wife, Noriko, had lived in Japan together for 14 years, where they had raised their two children. The couple divorced shortly after moving to Tennessee after Savoie cheated on Noriko. Noriko was given custody of the children, as long as she agreed to keep the children in the U.S. Savoie found out Noriko had illegally returned to Fukuoka, Japan, with the children after calling her father. Upon discovering that Noriko had broken her agreement not to take the children back to Japan, Savoie was given full custody of the children. Fearing he would never see his children again, he flew to Fukuoka and grabbed his two children as they were on their way to school. He then drove with them straight to the U.S. consulate, but the police were waiting for him when he arrived there.
Japan is not party to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which standardized child abduction laws among its signatory nations. Japan has been reluctant to sign it, citing concerns over the safety of Japanese citizens fleeing from abusive spouses. (The convention has a provision concerning abuse, but apparently the Japanese government doesn’t find it adequate.) Despite child custody contracts drawn up in the non-Japanese parent’s home country, the Japanese government has never returned a child abducted to Japan to his or her legal guardian.
To understand Japan’s point-of-view on the child abduction issue, it is useful to look at marriage and divorce in Japan. In Japanese homes, the mother is the primary caretaker, while the father is mostly absent. Most Japanese companies begin business at 9 a.m., and the average commuter travels for one hour to get to the office. The work day ends at 6 p.m., but on most nights, salarymen have to go out drinking with clients and coworkers to build business relationships. Therefore, Japanese fathers typically leave for work before their children wake up, and return home after their children have gone to sleep. The only assistance the typical Japanese father gives in child-rearing is financial. When couples divorce, Japanese courts typically grant sole custody of the children to the mother by default. Whether the father has access to his children after the divorce is left solely to the discretion of the mother. The father usually has no ties with his children after a divorce. This makes sense from the Japanese point-of-view considering that the stigma against divorce is so strong that when couples do divorce, it is assumed that there were serious personality problems with one of the partners.
Because Japan has not signed the convention, Japanese courts do not recognize the legitimacy of child custody contracts of other countries. In the above case of Christopher Savoie, Savoie was seen as the criminal, while his ex-wife was seen as the victim, despite her actions being illegal according to the convention.
I find it ironic that the Japanese government continues to ask Washington for assistance in rescuing the 17 Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea from 1977 to 1983, while Japan has done next to nothing to return the 37 American children abducted by Japanese in 2009 alone.
Japan will hold hearings this month regarding whether it should join the pact, now over 30 years old.
